10 Shows We’ll Be Talking About in January

For many of us, it’s bitterly cold outside, and we all just made it through another year of yelling at one another about popular culture and politics. Doesn’t it seem as if the world were conspiring to push us all into our living rooms to watch more TV? Luckily, January has arguably become a more important month in the TV calendar than September, with some of the most popular and ambitious shows now arriving in what used to be called midseason.

This January has TV adaptations of best-selling crime novels, cult comic books and the short stories of Philip K. Dick. We’ll also see the return of one of the most beloved shows of the ’90s, and one of the most acclaimed of 2017 — and the debut of Dylan McDermott’s cheesy new pilot’s mustache. There’s a lot to talk about this month; here’s a taste of what’s ahead:

FOX

‘LA to Vegas’ Starts: Jan. 2, on Fox.

A mustachioed Dylan McDermott plays a weathered airline pilot who leads his eccentric crew on weekend jaunts back and forth from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, in this snappy sitcom that’s part workplace comedy, part “Love Boat”-like compendium of travel anecdotes. Creator Lon Zimmet previously wrote for shows like “Happy Endings,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Superstore.” “LA to Vegas” promises to be every bit as fast-paced and loony, with an unending string of passengers to keep the story ideas coming.—

Freeform

‘grown-ish’ Starts: Jan. 3, on Freeform.

The likable young actress Yara Shahidi transfers her “black-ish” character, Zoey Johnson, to a new sitcom, set at a typical modern college where the students are actively engaged both inside and outside the classroom. If the backdoor pilot that aired on its parent show last season is any indication, expect “grown-ish” to deal with the changing politics of academia and Zoey’s efforts to establish her own social and racial identity.—

Last year’s abbreviated six-episode season of “The X-Files” couldn’t measure up to the classic episodes of the late ’90s, but a few strong episodes were sprinkled into the mix. And for fans, just seeing David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson investigating the supernatural again as the F.B.I. agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully was reason enough to tune in. A sizable viewing audience for Season 10 all but assured a Season 11. This time, the band’s back together for 10 episodes, some of which will follow the continuing mystery of Mulder and Scully’s missing son, others of which will be stand-alone adventures, penned by the longtime “X-Files” writers Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan and James Wong.—

The Chi

‘The Chi’ Starts: Jan. 7, on Showtime.

At a time when Chicago’s gang violence has become a political talking-point on the right and left, Lena Waithe, the Emmy-winning writer-actress from “Master of None,” looks to offer a more complex view of her home city with “The Chi,” an ensemble drama about a family and its friends, who are pushing to get ahead while living on the South Side. Jason Mitchell (so good in “Straight Outta Compton” and “Mudbound”) stars as an aspiring restaurateur, whose skills and opportunities are often outweighed by his obligations to the people he grew up with.—

Prime Video

‘Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams’ Starts: Jan. 12, on Amazon.

The short stories and novels of visionary science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick have been adapted into such movies as “Blade Runner,” “Total Recall” and “Minority Report,” as well as the TV series “The Man in the High Castle.” For this anthology series, Ronald D. Moore (a writer and producer for “Battlestar Galactica” and “Outlander”) enlisted Steve Buscemi, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston, Geraldine Chaplin and others to play out some of Dick’s more provocative stories. As with most of Dick’s work, expect deep and troubling explorations of the ways in which future technology might affect the human spirit.—

The CW Television Network

‘Black Lightning’ Starts: Jan. 16 on the CW.

The network and producers behind some of today’s best live-action superhero shows dig back into the DC Comics archives to revive Black Lightning, an African-American vigilante with electrical powers. Greg Berlanti and the veteran husband-and-wife writing team Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil have cast Cress Williams as an older version of the hero, who’s drawn back into crime-fighting years after hanging up his costume. At the moment, the new series isn’t intended to be part of the fictional universe shared by several of the CW’s superhero shows — known to fans as the Arrowverse — though if it does well, we could someday see crossovers with the likes of “The Flash” and “Supergirl.”—

It’s going to be tough for the second season of FX’s anthology series “American Crime Story” to top its award-winning first run, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” — especially since its original creators, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, are no longer on board. Still, the producer and director Ryan Murphy has assembled a good cast to tell the story of the fashion designer Gianni Versace’s death at the hands of the serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Edgar Ramírez plays Versace, while Ricky Martin plays his boyfriend, Penélope Cruz plays his sister Donatella and Darren Criss is the killer who preyed on wealthy gay men.—

TNT

‘The Alienist’ Starts: Jan. 22, on TNT.

Caleb Carr’s best-selling historical crime novel “The Alienist” followed a winding path to the small screen. A movie adaptation stalled in the ’90s, then a parade of A-list writers and directors (including John Sayles and Cary Fukunaga) took a shot at whittling the grim book into something more audience-friendly for TV. Now, TNT is finally set to air the result of that collaboration, which stars Daniel Brühl as an 1890s psychologist and police consultant in New York, who uses controversial methods to track a serial killer — at the behest of the new police commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt. Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans also star in this dark mystery that doubles as a look at turn-of-the-century America.—

HBO

‘Mosaic’ Starts: Jan. 22, on HBO.

The relentlessly experimental director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ed Solomon introduced their murder mystery, “Mosaic,” back in November as an interactive iOS and Android app, turning the story into an elaborate “choose your own adventure” game. The HBO version of “Mosaic” eliminates the branching element, delivering a more straightforward narrative about a children’s book author (played by Sharon Stone), the man accused of killing her, and the amateur sleuths looking into what really happened.—

The TV year got off to a great start in 2017 with this reimagining of Norman Lear’s long-running ’70s-and-’80s sitcom “One Day at a Time.” Now, just a few weeks into 2018, the writer-producers Gloria Calderón Kellett and Mike Royce revisit working-class Los Angeles and the Cuban-American Alvarez family, as they lovingly argue about everything from global politics to contemporary gender roles. Like Season 1, the second season will use an old-fashioned three-camera, live-audience format as a way to lend the episodes some of the immediacy of theater.